


Paper Trail

by Boji



Category: Spooks | MI-5, Torchwood
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Originally Posted on LiveJournal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-06-23
Updated: 2007-06-23
Packaged: 2018-02-18 12:32:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2348564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Boji/pseuds/Boji
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Skeletons in the archives. Ruth & Harry discuss legends.</p><p>This was inspired by my TW/Spooks x-over drabble <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/2346479"><span class="small"><b>Our Man in Cardiff</b></span></a> & follows on from that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paper Trail

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for everything up to Spooks episode **"5:5"** , Torchwood Series One & Doctor Who Series Three - _Utopia._
> 
>  **Disclaimer:** What belongs the BBC, BBC Cardiff  & Kudos Productions is theirs; but what’s mine is mine, including the original elements in this story and the words I’ve used to tell the tale.  
> 

“Harry, have you got a minute?” Ruth stuck her head round the glass door of Harry Pearce’s office, her arms laden with folders and filing.

“What’s this about?” Pearce asked, his stomach sinking the way it always did when he spoke to Ruth these days.

“GCHQ archives kicked up a lot of stuff on Harkness.” Ruth walked into the room, the door closing behind her with a hiss. “Thing is, I think it’s a legend.” She placed the folders on Harry’s desk and began riffling through them, fast. “And a very good one at that.” At Harry’s blank look Ruth continued. “Dad came over here in 1941 flew with the RAF then, and don’t ask me how, he ends up at Bletchley, apparently grounded due to a blood disorder. He was the liaison between us and the OSS - his name is on documents from the period, analysis on the psychology of war, propaganda etc - at the same time as he’s reported KIA.”

“Lots of people were wrongly reported missing, or killed Ruth…” Harry interjected.

“Yes, but…” Smiling, Ruth plunged on, “Harry, after the war his father goes off the grid, more completely than if he disappeared into East Berlin. For seventeen years - nothing - then a birth certificate listing Jack’s birthplace as Honolulu.”

“Ruth whatever the problem is, I’m still not hearing it,” Harry stressed.

“The son apparently came over here with his mother and her second husband - both Americans - stepfather was on a Fulbright, but there’s no record of primary school attendance for Jack.” Ruth said, rushing on.

“Too young?” Harry asked.

“Possibly," Ruth said, "But there’s no record of a child living at the address listed at that time either. During the same supposed time-frame Jack’s stepfather becomes the first one in the family to draw a Torchwood pay-check." She paused. "But here’s where it gets interesting…” Ruth laid three black and white photographs out on Harry’s desk. Two men in uniform, one not. “Whoever mocked these up did a damn good job - and I’m quoting Malcom - Harry, it’s the same man…”


End file.
